


The Other Side

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Number The Stars [25]
Category: Numb3rs, Stargate Atlantis, Thoughtcrimes (2003)
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 09:18:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7096462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Thoughtcrimes/Numb3rs/Stargate Atlantis, Freya McAllister/Charlie Eppes, the first time through the Stargate together."</p><p>Charlie's first time through a stargate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Side

Charlie stood in the gate room, nerves jangling. He was finally going to go through the Stargate. To another _planet_. It was a momentous occasion. Life-changing. He should have been proud, excited, honored.  
  
Mostly he was scared.  
  
It didn’t help that when Teyla, Ronon, Brendan, and Amita arrived, they were all wearing tac vests and carrying weapons. Brendan, Ronon, and Teyla all had massive assault rifles clipped to their tac vests. Amita had a pistol strapped to her thigh, which was actually kinda sexy.  
  
“You ready?” Brendan asked. He was smirking that smirk that had once ended up in Charlie climbing up on a table in the middle of the student union dining hall and reciting a sonnet. Charlie always ended up doing crazy things when Brendan was around.  
  
“No,” Charlie said, and damned his mouth for moving faster than his very fast brain.  
  
Brendan sighed and signaled at one of the Marines who was standing at attention in the gate room. “Corporal,” he said, “Dr. Eppes needs some tac gear before he can go through the gate.”  
  
The way the Marine snapped to attention was still baffling to Charlie, who’d known Brendan as an easygoing flirt and a bit of a surfer bum (in addition to being a brilliant mathematician). But the Marine scurried away to a side room, and a moment later he returned with a tac vest, a thigh holster, and a pistol, which he foisted on Charlie. Charlie stared at the pile of gear in his hands in dismay. Amita sighed and put her datapad into a big pocket on her tac vest, then came over to help him get into his gear. It was a little humiliating, reminded Charlie of being a child again while his mother helped him navigate the physical puzzle that was coat buttons, but Amita’s hands were gentle, and Charlie could smell her hair, and -  
  
“Shep, get over here and help me with the holster.”  
  
And what had almost turned sexy and intimate became embarrassing all over again when Brendan came over and, with a patient air, strapped the thigh holster onto Charlie, holstered the pistol - which Charlie knew how to use very well, thanks - and then asked him several questions before adjusting it.  
  
Brendan looked Charlie critically, nodded, and then called up to Ops, “Dial it up!”  
  
Charlie had watched the gate come to life multiple times, been startled by the loud sound of the unstable vortex forming, but to see the chevrons light up and know that it’d be him getting broken down and shot across the galaxy and reconstituted on the other side was different. What if a piece was missing? What if he wasn’t the same person on the other side?  
  
Amita leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. (He still couldn’t quite think of her as Freya, and everyone else still called her Amita, so -)  
  
“It’ll be fine, Charlie,” she said. “You’ve faced down serial killers.”  
  
“I know. I just -”  
  
“Stay in formation, and the others will protect us. Now, where’s your datapad?”  
  
Charlie was holding his datapad like it was his favorite teddy bear. Amita smiled and showed him which pocket to stow it in.  
  
“Are you ready?” she asked.  
  
Up top, Woolsey said, “First Atlantis Reconnaissance Team, you have a go. Check-in in four hours.”  
  
“Yes, sir,” Brendan said, and he stepped into the wormhole. And vanished.  
  
Teyla and Ronon followed. Amita started toward the gate with no hesitation, but Charlie’s feet wouldn’t move. Amita turned back to him, reached out, and grabbed his hand.  
  
“Come on,” she said. “We’ll do it together.”  
  
“But I -”  
  
“You’ve trained for this for weeks.”  
  
“It’s -”  
  
“An uninhabited planet we’ve been to before. We’re just checking up on readings on one of Rodney’s experiments. It’ll be fine.”  
  
“I -”  
  
Amita leaned in and kissed him, and the entire world fell away. Until a Marine said, _Ooooh,_ like they were in elementary school, and then Amita hurled herself into the event horizon, dragging Charlie with her.  
  
He was cold. He was everywhere. He was nowhere. Down was up. Up was down. He was -  
  
On an alien planet.  
  
“This looks like Canada,” he said, disappointed, and Amita and Brendan burst out laughing.


End file.
